The following description of background art may include insights, discoveries, understandings or disclosures, or associations together with disclosures not known to the relevant art prior to the present invention but provided by the invention. Some such contributions of the invention may be specifically pointed out below, whereas other such contributions of the invention will be apparent from their context. Heterogeneous networks are being increasingly deployed which have various network topologies integrated into a cellular network topology. For example, in accordance with long term evolution (LTE)/LTE-advanced (LTE-A) 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP), a heterogeneous network may include a combination of microcells, pico cells, femto cells and relay cells operating in the same spectrum. Within a heterogeneous network, it may be desirable in some instances for various devices and machines to directly communicate in a local domain either with or without supervision of the network. Within a local domain, a heterogeneous network may therefore provide for network control or autonomous device-to-device (D2D) communication including communications in various clusters devices. Operation in the local domain of a heterogeneous network may also include a grid or group of local machines communicating and performing certain tasks in a cooperative manner. A heterogeneous network may also allow a device having advanced capabilities to serve as a gateway to the heterogeneous network for a number of devices or machines having relatively lesser capabilities.
A heterogeneous network may also provide for the autonomous operation of femto base stations. Femto base stations are local or sub-communication stations and may provide an access point, such as a user installed access point, that provides coverage to a corresponding femto cell that is located within a larger cell, e.g. a macro cell, defined by the coverage area of a network installed base station. As such, a femto base station may provide for in-home (or business) mobility with improved data rates and quality of service (QoS) as compared to a network installed base station, which may be loaded heavily from communications with other mobile terminals or subscribers and/or may be shielded somewhat by buildings or other obstructions. As used herein, femto base station is used generally to reference femto base stations, home node Bs (HNBs), local nodes or the like.
Some femto base stations, known as cognitive femto base stations, are configured for autonomous operation. A femto base station configured to operate autonomously may be movable and/or may be configured to adapt into the prevailing radio environment at any location and at any time. As a result of its autonomous operation, a cognitive femto base station may identify a suitable carrier to support communications with the network without burdening the network with the task of allocating the carrier to the femto base station.
The integration of local heterogeneous communication, such as between devices in the local domain or by a femto base station, may require the devices to identify and use radio resources of the network in such a manner that a relatively limited amount of network assistance is required and interference is not created with the other users of the network. As such, it may be desirable to provide for the allocation of a carrier to a cognitive femto base station in a manner that reduces or eliminates network involvement while correspondingly taking into account an interference issues created for other users of the network.